I posted this on Facebook:

Anybody open. Anybody new, open for a cup of coffee or a drink this weekend? Let’s be daring and meet somebody new.

Let’s do something different this weekend. Instead of the same old same old weekend.

I suggest you post this on your Facebook wall.

I wrote it because I was curious about what people would say.

In the beginning I wrote the same old, same old. The same old, same old means everything you’ve been doing before.

Hanging out with the same group of people you’ve hung out with for years.

Sure enough one of the first comments I got was somebody said, sounds great, but I have plans this weekend.

Don’t you get it? That’s the whole point. Plans don’t matter.

The plans we have every weekend are the same old, same old. Whether it’s seeing your friend Amy or your cousin Bruce.

It’s always the same old, same old. It’s always the same group of people doing the same things, week in and week out.

I was talking about being daring. I was talking about being different. And being daring and different means you’re going to have to step outside your comfort zone. Sit down, face to face, with someone you’ve never met before.

See I added something to the post before I posted it.

Reach out to someone you find attractive.

I threw a little more fear into it. Reaching out to someone you find attractive means you’re going to have to be vulnerable and open and not be tied to an outcome.

It means that person may reject you when you put it out there. You might have to contact them via Facebook and actually wait.

Or you might have to comment on his post and see what happens.

You’re going to have to deal with your inner neurotic being. The one that has you saying “whoa, wait a second, I’m actually putting it out there. I’m admitting that I like somebody. Holy shit, what am I going to do”?

It brought me back to my fifth grade dance.

You see there was this girl. Her name was Kim.

She’s actually one of my Facebook friends now.

We grew up together.

I had a mean crush on her.

So one day I was determined I was going to put it out there. I wanted a girlfriend. She seemed good. I didn’t know how to come across or how to get a girlfriend, I just knew you had to do something.

So I brought my Wacky Packages to school.

For those of you who are ancient like me, you remember Wacky Packages. They’re these great stickers that you could put on things that made fun of household products. Like Crust instead of Crest toothpaste.

I went to school. Kim showed up, and I remember it like it was yesterday. Unfortunately it was about 30,000 yesterdays ago.

She came in and she was crying. My teacher had to talk to her. She must have had something wrong at home.woman-being-free

When she finally sat down, class was starting. I was determined. I was determined that I was going to get her to like me that day by giving her my Wacky Packages.

I brought all my doubles with me, because when you bought things as kids you got doubles. Remember those days of getting baseball cards and stickers. So I had a double pile, and I brought the double pile to school. Throughout the day I just started handing her some.

“Hey, I have one of these here.” She said “thank you.” As the day progressed I must have given her close to 50 Wacky Packages.

She just kept taking them. Being the same 11 year old person I was, she probably had no idea what I was doing. Then again, neither did I, except I felt when you like somebody you give them something.

I saw my dad bring flowers home for my mom, so I was giving Kim virtual flowers. Or stickers.

At the end of the day I didn’t know what to do. I didn’t know you had to ask somebody out, or to hang out or anything.

I looked at her and said, “I’m going to go get more, would you like some?”

She looked at me and broke my little 11 year old heart.

She said to me, “why are you doing this?”

The first thing that came to my was, “isn’t this what your supposed to do?”

She said, “why? Why are you supposed to do this?”

I said, “I don’t know.”

I didn’t talk to another girl again for probably six months after that experience. But I survived. Just like you’re going to survive.

So this weekend, do the posting above.

Put it out there. Reach out to somebody. If they don’t accept your Wacky Packages, realize that you are going to survive.

You are going to open yourself up and be vulnerable like never before. Or maybe, like me, you once did when you were innocent and 11.